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Fracking Confronts Florida

Fracking is inevitable in South Florida, maybe within a year, said Ed Pollister, owner/operator of a small company called Century Oil, with offices in Immokalee and Michigan.

Fracking fever is fueled by new technologies developed over the last 10 years that make it economically feasible and profitable to drill for previously untouchable sources of oil and gas. But the economic boom has its price. Environmentalists and other critics say fracking can contaminate groundwater and a 2011 congressional report says the fracking cocktail can include a combination of any of 750 chemicals and other components.

“I think that it’s something that is, without adequate regulation and management of the fluids and without adequate water supplies to do the fracking, it’s something that needs to be avoided for Southwest Florida at least for the foreseeable future,” said Andrew McElwaine, CEO of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples.